To further our understanding of the effects of biomass burning emissions on
atmospheric composition, we report measurements of trace species in biomass
burning plumes made by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform
Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) instrument on the SCISAT-1 satellite. An extensive set
of 15 molecules, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub>,
CH<sub>3</sub>OH, CH<sub>4</sub>, CO, H<sub>2</sub>CO, HCN, HCOOH,
HNO<sub>3</sub>, NO, NO<sub>2</sub>, N<sub>2</sub>O<sub>5</sub>, O<sub>3</sub>,
OCS and SF<sub>6</sub> are used in our analysis. Even though most biomass
burning smoke is typically confined to the boundary layer, some of these
emissions are injected directly into the free troposphere via fire-related
convective processes and transported away from the emission source. Further
knowledge of the aging of biomass burning emissions in the free troposphere
is needed. Tracer-tracer correlations are made between known pyrogenic
species in these plumes in an effort to characterize them and follow their
chemical evolution. Criteria such as age and type of biomass material burned
are considered.